A group of NIU kitchen helpers marched from the parking garage on Normal Road to Lowden Hall to make a brief statement and present a petition to NIU President John Peters Tuesday.

Ruth Stone, vice president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 963, said the petition was signed by 40 of the 42 kitchen helpers working on campus. It stated that they think they are underpaid and want NIU to renegotiate fair contracts with them and AFSCME.

“It would be nice if we were paid what we deserve,” kitchen helper Kathy Franklin said.

But NIU’s thin budget presents a problem for the kitchen workers, helper Charlotte Frickman said.

“They say it would take $300,000 to give us all a raise and they don’t have it,” she said.

The decision to organize the march came in response to the difficulties of the negotiation process, Stone said.

“We’ve had five negotiations scheduled, but the NIU management team has canceled two of them. It doesn’t seem like they want to talk, so we decided to try to push these negotiations along a little,” she said.

In addition to scheduling problems, the negotiation process has been hindered by a refusal to release records, AFSCME Local 963 President James Sheridan said.

“Back on June 2, we asked the management team to provide us with copies of the budget over the past three years so that we can estimate a more precise economic request for them. We have been told the only way that information will be released to us is if we file for a Freedom of Information Act demand,” Sheridan said.

Sheridan said the group hoped delivering their petition would mean a release of the budget records.

“That budget information is on the computers at Lowden Hall,” Sheridan said. “What’s the big secret?”

Sheridan said frustration over the slow movement of negotiations was a major factor in deciding to march.

“We’ve been talking since May 26, and in that amount of time, we haven’t made any progress in the economic portion of the contract bargaining,” he said.

Sheridan also said they want to find out where the unused money from students’ meal plans went.

“We would like that information, and we’d gladly share that with any student organizations that are interested,” he said.

Stone said that the march was the kitchen helpers’ first “presentation.”

“After this campaign, we’re hoping they’ll take us seriously, but if they don’t, then we have a few other things up our sleeves,” she said.

The office of Finance and Facilities was not available for comment.

As of press time, the kitchen helpers reported they had not received a response from NIU.